During a recent drive through South Australia we got to experience the very best of the recently installed RAA charging network, starting just south of the Northern Territory border, through the Flinders Rangers and then across to Ceduna.
In all, we used 10 different Kempower 150kW DC chargers (3 of them twice). We visited 11 different charging stations and gave it a score of 10/11.
Why only a 10/11 score? I’ll get to that later, but let’s highlight the positives first. Here’s a brief summary of each:
Pimba
Located at Spuds Roadhouse on the T-junction between Coober Pedy, Port Augusta and Roxby Downs. Well positioned at a busy Roadhouse with toilets nearby.
Hawker
Located in the carpark of the Teague Motors service station and shop, and what a great little shop it is, partly mini supermarket, with hardware and camping supplies, so much useful stuff packed into a building smaller than a house.
Leigh Creek
Located 540kms north of Adelaide this DC charger provides access east to Arkaroola Wilderness retreat 140kms to the east or the Farina Bakery 60kms to the north. I’m calling this the best planned DC charger in SA with forward, reverse and sideways parking for those towing (see pic at top). It also has 4 x type 2 charging bays.
Port Augusta
Located close to Woolworths, Coles and Big W, 2 seperate DC units with 2 cables each. This site is already getting busy but fortunately the RAA are adding a similar set up at the Puma service station 5kms to the south.
Cowell
Located on the Foreshore 180kms south-west of Port Augusta. Toilets are close by, food shops a bit of a longer walk.
Tumby Bay
Sideways parking if needed plus a Bakery one block behind, this one ticks the important boxes.
Port Lincoln
The first time we charged at Port Lincoln 7 years ago it was via a three phase outlet near the Makybe Diva statue on the Foreshore, this time it was so fast via the Kempower 150kW DC unit that we unplugged and moved the car before taking a walk around town.
Elliston
Located approximately halfway between Port Lincoln and Streaky Bay on the south-west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. Sideways parking, a small Supermarket nearby.
Streaky Bay
Located across from the Tourist Park approximately 800 metres from the town centre. If you’re planning a trip across the Nullarbor I highly recommend you make this an overnight stop, it’s a beautiful little waterside town with a great pub looking north over the water.
Ceduna
If you’re heading across the Nullarbor or just returning this Kempower 150kW DC charger is a welcome sight. It’s located in the rear car park of the Ceduna Foreshore Hotel.
The IGA store is a 5 minute walk away for those that need to stock up on reasonable price groceries before the long trek West, just don’t buy anything that won’t be permitted into Western Australia.
Over the 3 day time frame we used the 10 different RAA DC units the cars battery percentage stayed between 20% and 75% due to the good spacing between charging stops. The exception was Ceduna, where a 90% charge was needed to safely get to the Nullarbor Roadhouse including a detour to Lake McDonnell.
The connection via Chargefox was sharp, a vast improvement in the past 12 months. Reliable public charging and a fast connection is essential to further EV adoption in this country.
The Lowlight
Marla is a small settlement and a very busy Roadhouse 150kms south of the NT border, it’s the halfway point and previously was the only 3 phase charging along the 414km drive between Kulgera Roadhouse and Coober Pedy.
This location has a list of problems, I guess the RAA thought no one would bother going that far north so no one would notice, here’s a summary in order:
The charge points are behind the main building hidden amongst the accommodation; it takes some searching to eventually find it. Some basic signage with arrows out the front would help.
Placing the charge points in an accommodation carpark is going to result in blocked chargers from early afternoon right through to check out time the next morning.
There are 3 charging outlets, only two are on the Chargefox app.
The identification numbers on the charger posts don’t match the numbers on the Chargefox app for the location.
Only one of the two chargers on the Chargefox app worked, not a problem you say because it’s the middle of nowhere, doubtful if this place gets one EV visit per week, no one will notice. Less than an hour into our charging session a KIA EV9 drives in with no hope of charging until we unplugged.
Lastly and worst of all Marla previously had 32amp 3 phase charging, it now has 32amp single phase charging, potentially 3 times slower, two years ago we charged at 22kW, this trip we charged at 7.2kW, it’s not just about downtime, it’s about safety.
EV drivers soon learn it saves time to drive slower and be more energy efficient when charging can’t replace energy as fast as an EV can consume it at highway speeds.
The RAA should be well aware that EVs hypermiling at 80kmh in a 110kmh zone is not safe.
The simple solution here would be to remove the 3 single phase posts (2 that don’t work) and replace them with a 32amp phase 22kW Delta DC charger similar to those placed along a few of the Nullarbor locations, this is not a long term solution but would provide a reliable and safe method of charging until EV traffic increased enough to justify fast DC charging.
Overall, the RAA of SA charging network will suit the vast majority of EV journeys but treating Marla as a near enough is good enough is not acceptable.